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No, this is not about a big city!  Nor is it about some type of political approach (as in getting a constituency together for a meeting).

This is about the evangelical youth groups of our town meeting together.  The tradition has gone on for a number of years. 

This year has seen a real changeover in leadership.  So the executive met last night to do some planning.  Looks like the first Citywide meeting will be a service opportunity on Halloween — to go out and collect food for the foodbank here in town.  Not a bad way to start out a new year.

First were the quizzers.  They’ve been memorizing the book of Luke in the Bible.  Time each day is dedicated to memorizing.  Time is spent practicing practice questions.  Once a week they practice together.  Then once every few months they get together with others!  This was 8:00 in the morning, heading down the road to Outlook, 1 1/2 hours away.

Then, later in the day there were the “screamo” artists.  They’ve been practicing their music.  Time each day is spent in listening to music.  Time is spent in writing words and figuring out chords.  Every week or so they talk about music or practice together.  Then finally they get it together and do some recording.  That was my opportunity today, to serve as sound engineer (and yes, screaming is part of the music!!).  The picture is doctored a bit, they actually come in full color!!

As I enter the hospital this afternoon, I asked for the rooms of three different patients.  I proceeded to the rooms.  Two were adjacent to each other. 

The first room was empty.   The second had a stranger in it.

I proceeded to the nurse’s station.  One had been discharged, the second was still in emergency. 

I headed to emergency (this hospital is in Saskatoon so I was not familiar with the hospital — I had to ask).  There I picked up the emergency room phone.  The nurse answered that she knew where the patient was.  She directed me to look straight ahead.  When I turned slightly, she corrected me.  My guess?  There was a camera watching me.

Eventually I found the patient and chatted with him.  Then off to Intensive Care.  This patient’s mother was in the waiting room, and I was not able to visit.  But I did get some background.

So, when you head to the hospital, don’t expect you will find everything in order.  Most often you will, but then there are days!!

The course was from 8:30 – 5:15.  With an hour break for lunch.

Now, this was a totally over my head type of experience.  I don’t cook — I don’t even BBQ (the accepted domain of the “guys” of the world).  I love to do dishes, I don’t mind setting a table and I can enjoy a great meal.  But beyond the very basic ability, I’m not one to know about food or food handling.

I caught the basic principles, and even some of the practical approaches.  But as the end neared I wasn’t sure I’d be able to pass the test at the end of the class.

The 4:00 hour approached.  The final powerpoint slide of the presentation was done and Norm handed out the test.  OPEN BOOK!  Norm told us to take our time.  Around 4:45 he realized time was running out and most of us had only just finished half way through the questions.

The realization began to dawn on him and on us.  Today’s presentation was a revision of the foodhandler’s course (which my wife had taken last year).  The test was also a revision.  And unfortunately he had brought the unrevised revised test.  There were two “#40” questions.  One question was not covered in the presentation nor in the “open book”.  We were informed that we would all go over the test together and that we had all passed.

With the five of us present, we began to head through the answers.  Yes, we all could figure out why the answer was what it was.  Yes, we all enjoy multiple guess questions.  But there seemed to be a few trick questions that we agreed would have thrown us off.

In the end, Norm informed us that we had all passed.  The certificates will be on the way in the next few weeks.  So, unofficially, I’m now a certified foodhandler — or maybe more precisely, I have successfully completed the required provincial foodhandling course.

Another level of competent incompetency gained (OK, I did learn some things that will be helpful, but don’t ask me to BBQ a pork chop for you!!).